clarkson's e46 m3 and previous cars - lots of pics
Discussion
Little update I've been having some serious brake judder in the pedal and the steering wheel and a loud whirring noise only when braking from 40mph onwards , took the discs off and every single hole on the back was blocked with brake dust, none of the fronts were so drilled out all the holes and put it back together no judder thank god! But few weeks on I started getting some weird handling problems on front end , very vague nothing really In the center of the wheel so spent 312 
on steering coupler and the universal joint arm above it and was greeted with this!
Well that explains the handling !
I decided to change the the steering couple and uj and the coupler was knackered as well tons of play between the rubber and metal bits
New parts and 3 new bolts
Also had a weird grumble from under the car in the center and I knew it was the center bearing I should of changed it when engine was out but oh well
Old one was toast!!
Just waiting on the bracket to hold the anti roll bar on and going to get it all together
Next job soon is a Vince style brace from the rear subframe!
on steering coupler and the universal joint arm above it and was greeted with this!Well that explains the handling !
I decided to change the the steering couple and uj and the coupler was knackered as well tons of play between the rubber and metal bits
New parts and 3 new bolts
Also had a weird grumble from under the car in the center and I knew it was the center bearing I should of changed it when engine was out but oh well
Old one was toast!!
Just waiting on the bracket to hold the anti roll bar on and going to get it all together
Next job soon is a Vince style brace from the rear subframe!
Well sorted the anti roll bar out but the handlig is still weird , after a thousand times of being on axle stands the lemforder track rod outer and inners I put on last August were the non m3 ones! They look similar but are 12mm shorter and the ball joint is alot smaller , I've oreder the correct lemforder ones so will fit them when they arrive, also I kept smelling burning oil at idle at traffic lights , the bloody new rocker cover gasket that has 8000 miles on it is leaking ! Off with that and I checked the valve clearences because when I put engine back together i didn't have the right size shims so some of them 9n exhaust side nearly fit the 0.13 , so I checked them all and only a few on exhaust could force but not slide easily the 0.13 feeler gauge in so ordered the ones needed from bmw swopped them out and now the 0.12 slides in nicely! Intake side was bang on
Also fitted my rear xbrace
Dropped exhaust down so I could remove back 2 subframe bolts and drill up
50mm holesaw in the boot
Send a m12 x1.5 tap through from bottom
Fitted just waiting on some m12 nyloc locking nuts and will sort out and trim all carpets tomorrow
Scratched it to high heaven fitting it in and out so will spray it sometime soon
Also fitted my rear xbrace
Dropped exhaust down so I could remove back 2 subframe bolts and drill up
50mm holesaw in the boot
Send a m12 x1.5 tap through from bottom
Fitted just waiting on some m12 nyloc locking nuts and will sort out and trim all carpets tomorrow
Scratched it to high heaven fitting it in and out so will spray it sometime soon
Edited by clarkson22 on Saturday 16th April 20:02
Took out and sprayed the brace and trimmed the carpets so to fit
Scratches everywhere ment to be powder coated but it's looks and feels like spray paint.
Few coats of Matt black
Still going to add a Vince/sme/ style brace that's hidden to connect to the chassis legs I might even have a go at making it myself.
Next up correct lemforder inner and outer track rods
Oil and filter change and vanos filter
Alignment again
Scratches everywhere ment to be powder coated but it's looks and feels like spray paint.
Few coats of Matt black
Still going to add a Vince/sme/ style brace that's hidden to connect to the chassis legs I might even have a go at making it myself.
Next up correct lemforder inner and outer track rods
Oil and filter change and vanos filter
Alignment again
Edited by clarkson22 on Sunday 17th April 17:40
Well had more problems the engine was ticking/tapping on idle and revving the tapping would increase it seemed to quiten down when I replaced the shims few weeks ago but now it was back but louder and sounded terrible I bought a stethoscope to pinpoint it, vanos started to rattle at around 1800rpm , stuck it on sump to make sure it weren't rod bearings , dropped oil and checked filter , all good sooooo
Cams out
One flat follower on exhaust side cylinder 6
Cylinder 5 followers were just starting to get a ridge on them and the exhaust camshaft has some wear on the same lobes as the bad followers so managed to purchase so cams and followers second hand I'm I've checked every other follower and they are all ok but I'm just going to swop them all out on exhaust side and change the cam over so it matches the followers intake side is absoluty fine and looks all good, also the vanos splines have alot of play so I've ordered the anti rattle kit and and s62 springs should of done these when engine was out but oh well.
Till next time
Cams out
One flat follower on exhaust side cylinder 6
Cylinder 5 followers were just starting to get a ridge on them and the exhaust camshaft has some wear on the same lobes as the bad followers so managed to purchase so cams and followers second hand I'm I've checked every other follower and they are all ok but I'm just going to swop them all out on exhaust side and change the cam over so it matches the followers intake side is absoluty fine and looks all good, also the vanos splines have alot of play so I've ordered the anti rattle kit and and s62 springs should of done these when engine was out but oh well.
Till next time
Managed to get around to changing some followers 3 on the exhaust side 1 was really flat and 2 had ridges forming all the others were fine.
Luckily it was the last 3 cylinders so I didn't have to dismantle the whole front end to withdraw the follower shaft
3 new ones in
Bottom one was flat
That would be the loud ticking/tapping
Pushed it inside due to rain
S62 springs for the vanos hubs
All apart
Cleaned,reassembled and loctite on the threads
Vanos back on
Rocker cover placed on got to check valve clearences tomorrow and finish it all up.
Luckily it was the last 3 cylinders so I didn't have to dismantle the whole front end to withdraw the follower shaft
3 new ones in
Bottom one was flat
That would be the loud ticking/tapping
Pushed it inside due to rain
S62 springs for the vanos hubs
All apart
Cleaned,reassembled and loctite on the threads
Vanos back on
Rocker cover placed on got to check valve clearences tomorrow and finish it all up.
Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 16th May 17:45
Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 16th May 17:46
Got the valve clearnces done today obvisouly the ones with new followers were out changed them and the rest were all in spec
Put it all back together
Started it up and no more horrible ticking or tapping and the noise has gone from the vanos that was comming in about 1800 Rpms engine sounded good thank good! Got to replace the track rod arms and get it moted soon!
Put it all back together
Started it up and no more horrible ticking or tapping and the noise has gone from the vanos that was comming in about 1800 Rpms engine sounded good thank good! Got to replace the track rod arms and get it moted soon!
Car passed mot other week absolutely nothing wrong with it , (bloody shouldn't be!)
Came out one morning and some tw@t had robbed my driver's side indicator , broke clip that bolts to side of headlight pulled the wing out and now has a slight crease managed to push it in but you can slightly see it so I'm going to order some new wings, they didn't even get it out in one piece so it's useless to them!!! headlight washer trims scratched surprised they didn't take that aswell.
I hardly ever park my car Infront of the house but that will be the last time!!!
So off to BMW might as well get a fresh passenger side indicator aswell!! Even came with bulb holders and bulbs!
Luckily they didn't break the metal tab I riveted on to side of headlight to bolt indicator in
New on drivers side old on passenger
Both new
You can see the pointy bit on wing where it was creased, managed to get it flattish but still need a new one as there's ABIT of rust comming back through
Oh and went to lock car one night and key just spun so for 9 quid replaced lock all works good again
Came out one morning and some tw@t had robbed my driver's side indicator , broke clip that bolts to side of headlight pulled the wing out and now has a slight crease managed to push it in but you can slightly see it so I'm going to order some new wings, they didn't even get it out in one piece so it's useless to them!!!
headlight washer trims scratched surprised they didn't take that aswell.I hardly ever park my car Infront of the house but that will be the last time!!!
So off to BMW might as well get a fresh passenger side indicator aswell!! Even came with bulb holders and bulbs!
Luckily they didn't break the metal tab I riveted on to side of headlight to bolt indicator in
New on drivers side old on passenger
Both new
You can see the pointy bit on wing where it was creased, managed to get it flattish but still need a new one as there's ABIT of rust comming back through
Oh and went to lock car one night and key just spun so for 9 quid replaced lock all works good again
Eml light kept popping up till it stayed lit, pre cat lambda sensor bank 1, so bought 2 new Bosch sensors and some o2 sensor tools and swopped them out
Also swopped out the MAF for a new Bosch one
The euro car parts elring valve gasket was leaking onto the manifold again !!! So off to BMW and got a genuine one
Think I'm going to get a carbon air box soon for it and going to have the diff rebuilt with the 3.91 ratio
Also swopped out the MAF for a new Bosch one
The euro car parts elring valve gasket was leaking onto the manifold again !!! So off to BMW and got a genuine one
Think I'm going to get a carbon air box soon for it
and going to have the diff rebuilt with the 3.91 ratioEml light came back on exhaust cam sensor , whoops forgot to plug it back in and it melted on the exhaust manifold and wouldn't get a connection, so hunted around and got a new connector from web as BMW couldn't find me one even with part number on the plug!!
ABIT melted
De-pinned
New one on
Works fine now **touches wood**
ABIT melted
De-pinned
New one on
Works fine now **touches wood**
Sorted.out the passenger side wing mirror base , usual corrosion didn't spray the wing mirror as that's in good condition
Sanded all corrosion
2k primer in a can
3 coats of primer and then sanded smooth and moved inside the garage for colour and lacquer
3 coats of basecoat
3 coats of 2k lacquer in a can
On the car a few days later
Sanded all corrosion
2k primer in a can
3 coats of primer and then sanded smooth and moved inside the garage for colour and lacquer
3 coats of basecoat
3 coats of 2k lacquer in a can
On the car a few days later
Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 23 June 21:53
Edited by clarkson22 on Thursday 23 June 21:54
Cheers man
Started off by peeling Geoff steel stickers off using hair dryer and plastic scraper
Airbox off
Made up my map sensor loom some braided wire protector heat shrink at the bottom and pins for ECU on 2 wires crimped
Didn't like the green plug so sprayed it black
On the connector it's labeled a b c for the 3 wires
So wire a ( blue wire) went to pin 16 on the ECU connector - ground
Wire b ( purple) went to pin 18 on ECU connector
Wire c ( red) was spliced into the green/red wire from pin 7 on the same connector
You can see the purple and blue wire going into the connector
Wire c spliced into pin 7 just further back from connector
Cut the hose here to add the t piece for the map sensor
Tie wrapped the map sensor to the ECU box lid bracket and connected up ( see would of been a green plug if it wasn't sprayed black
)
T piece in with 5mm silicone hose to map sensor
Bits required to connect it up
Excuse the finger prints all over the box
Still need to put the other bit of snorkel on, I had to unbolt the dipstick spin to where it's sitting in that pic and bolt it back down .
ECU went off to be converted to a hp and a map put on
Beer time
Started off by peeling Geoff steel stickers off using hair dryer and plastic scraper
Airbox off
Made up my map sensor loom some braided wire protector heat shrink at the bottom and pins for ECU on 2 wires crimped
Didn't like the green plug so sprayed it black
On the connector it's labeled a b c for the 3 wires
So wire a ( blue wire) went to pin 16 on the ECU connector - ground
Wire b ( purple) went to pin 18 on ECU connector
Wire c ( red) was spliced into the green/red wire from pin 7 on the same connector
You can see the purple and blue wire going into the connector
Wire c spliced into pin 7 just further back from connector
Cut the hose here to add the t piece for the map sensor
Tie wrapped the map sensor to the ECU box lid bracket and connected up ( see would of been a green plug if it wasn't sprayed black
)T piece in with 5mm silicone hose to map sensor
Bits required to connect it up
Excuse the finger prints all over the box
Still need to put the other bit of snorkel on, I had to unbolt the dipstick spin to where it's sitting in that pic and bolt it back down .
ECU went off to be converted to a hp and a map put on
Beer time
Finished it off today just got to wait for my ECU to come back
Iat loom and sensor
Screwed in iat
Pull pin 22 out of connector x60003 (same one a the one for map sensor)
Replace the wire that's just been pulled out with signal wire from iat into pin 22 and splice the ground wire into pin 17 ( ground from MAF)
Forgot to take pics of this !
Bought some little rubber feet as you can't bolt the box to the standard airbox y bracket thing so it now sits on these
Put some self adhesive foam pads on top
Iat plugged in
All done just awaiting ECU
Sprayed my strut brace as it was all scratched
2k primer , black and then 2k lacquer
Till next time!
Iat loom and sensor
Screwed in iat
Pull pin 22 out of connector x60003 (same one a the one for map sensor)
Replace the wire that's just been pulled out with signal wire from iat into pin 22 and splice the ground wire into pin 17 ( ground from MAF)
Forgot to take pics of this !
Bought some little rubber feet as you can't bolt the box to the standard airbox y bracket thing so it now sits on these
Put some self adhesive foam pads on top
Iat plugged in
All done just awaiting ECU
Sprayed my strut brace as it was all scratched
2k primer , black and then 2k lacquer
Till next time!
Cheers man just wish I could drive it!!! Probably another week till ECU is back and done
But anyway sticker came for box so got tape and tape measure and got sticking
The sticker as per the CSL is 72 mm ish from top and 52 mm ish from side but I moved it back to 30mm so the strut brace goes between the BMW and the npower bit.
Must of measure it about a 1000 times, finishes it off nicely
But anyway sticker came for box so got tape and tape measure and got sticking
The sticker as per the CSL is 72 mm ish from top and 52 mm ish from side but I moved it back to 30mm so the strut brace goes between the BMW and the npower bit.
Must of measure it about a 1000 times, finishes it off nicely
Got my ECU back from being converted to a hp and sent it off again to be loaded with a CSL map and tune ,
So in the meantime I've been meaning to clean up the battery tray area
Took out the rusty tray
Ground down what ever I could then used sandpaper , some rust converter and then 2k primer and threw some silver on it till I get se beige that matches
I deleted the pictures of this by accident but you get the gist
Wire flaped this
You know the score , 2k primer, black , 2k lacquer
Metal still has pitting but it shouldn't rust again
Need to order some used boot carpets , I tried to dye them black years ago and now they look s
t and they looked st dyed so back to grey
So in the meantime I've been meaning to clean up the battery tray area
Took out the rusty tray
Ground down what ever I could then used sandpaper , some rust converter and then 2k primer and threw some silver on it till I get se beige that matches
I deleted the pictures of this by accident but you get the gist
Wire flaped this
You know the score , 2k primer, black , 2k lacquer
Metal still has pitting but it shouldn't rust again
Need to order some used boot carpets , I tried to dye them black years ago and now they look s
t and they looked st dyed so back to greyHad the ECU back now since last Thursday and the sound is insane!!!! Feels good drives like stock, pulls nice and hard no jerkiness,
Trimmed and fitted the rad/fan shroud
So decided to sort the cold air feed out as the standard feed from fog light was to tall to let the snorkel sit far enough down so trimmed it and stuck a 2.5 inch cold air hose down from fog light straight up the carbon snorkel
Even has a anodised black end!
Smaller hose fed from the kidney grill scoop area
And the f'kin speakers there's really no oomph from the bass so I bypassed the Harmon kardon amp and tapped into the rear right and rear left speaker signal just before it goes into the amp and sent them straight to the alpine 6x9s in the sub basket and it still retains all other speakers working
Rear right
Same again for rear left and send them into the parcel shelf then into the sub basket
OEM loom tape back on
Removes standard connectors from basket and feed the new speaker wires through the grommet
Routed next to OEM wiring
What a difference ! More bass ,sounds more clearer comming straight from the headunit than going through the amp and it's weird settings.
And finally polished the airbox with some small drill attachments
Trimmed and fitted the rad/fan shroud
So decided to sort the cold air feed out as the standard feed from fog light was to tall to let the snorkel sit far enough down so trimmed it and stuck a 2.5 inch cold air hose down from fog light straight up the carbon snorkel
Even has a anodised black end!
Smaller hose fed from the kidney grill scoop area
And the f'kin speakers there's really no oomph from the bass so I bypassed the Harmon kardon amp and tapped into the rear right and rear left speaker signal just before it goes into the amp and sent them straight to the alpine 6x9s in the sub basket and it still retains all other speakers working
Rear right
Same again for rear left and send them into the parcel shelf then into the sub basket
OEM loom tape back on
Removes standard connectors from basket and feed the new speaker wires through the grommet
Routed next to OEM wiring
What a difference ! More bass ,sounds more clearer comming straight from the headunit than going through the amp and it's weird settings.
And finally polished the airbox with some small drill attachments
Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 11th July 20:00
Edited by clarkson22 on Monday 11th July 20:02
amp and sub install
Whilst running the 6x9s straight from the headunit the bass was improved but everytime I got in my e91 with OEM hifi amp I put in a while back the bass was alot punchier and better so I decided to install a amp and sub
Juice amp 4 channel 1500w I just mounted it with short self tappers into the seat back
Running front and rear RCA cables and remote turn on from headunit to amp
Power cables done , had to use a red coloured earth cable as the black one supplied was way to short I've wrapped it in black wire protector but I'll swop it for black soon as its doing my head in
Inline fuse connected to power cable next to battery
Wired the to 6x9s to other spare channels
Can still get a few bags In lol,
I'm going to remove the 6x9s and sub basket totally, take the front speakers that I changed swop them with the parcel shelf speakers and run them off the amp and leave the Harmon kardon amp doing the front speakers and tweeters only
But NOW I have bass and sounds decent without blowing windows out
Whilst running the 6x9s straight from the headunit the bass was improved but everytime I got in my e91 with OEM hifi amp I put in a while back the bass was alot punchier and better so I decided to install a amp and sub
Juice amp 4 channel 1500w I just mounted it with short self tappers into the seat back
Running front and rear RCA cables and remote turn on from headunit to amp
Power cables done , had to use a red coloured earth cable as the black one supplied was way to short I've wrapped it in black wire protector but I'll swop it for black soon as its doing my head in
Inline fuse connected to power cable next to battery
Wired the to 6x9s to other spare channels
Can still get a few bags In lol,
I'm going to remove the 6x9s and sub basket totally, take the front speakers that I changed swop them with the parcel shelf speakers and run them off the amp and leave the Harmon kardon amp doing the front speakers and tweeters only
But NOW I have bass
and sounds decent without blowing windows out Cheers man funnily enough the OEM One is leaking now, it's leaking right where you have to put sealent between the timing chain cover and head, I think the sealent I used was st going to take it off and get some other brand , think I used elring sealent as well!
Anyway quick fix , I kept getting waffs of fuel when going round drivers side wheel area , thought it was one of pipes that I had off a few times , but no it was the fuel cap o ring !
No more fuel smells
t going to take it off and get some other brand , think I used elring sealent as well!Anyway quick fix , I kept getting waffs of fuel when going round drivers side wheel area , thought it was one of pipes that I had off a few times , but no it was the fuel cap o ring !
No more fuel smells
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